In
the wake of reading many of President Trump's tweets I find myself
outraged, or disappointed, or embarrassed, or knowing more fuel has
been added to a growing fire that seems to be threatening national
unity from these days on.

Such
was the case with one specific example of the president's tweets
among the tantrum of outbursts he directed at sporting events and the
protests that took place at these events over the weekend:

“So
proud of NASCAR and its supporters and fans. They won't put up with
disrespecting our Country or our Flag - they said it loud and clear!”

The
president, as he often does, is either displaying ignorance of how
things work or is willfully distorting the depiction of a situation
in the hopes of using it to his benefit – not to mention the
stereotyping of all NASCAR fans as inevitably being members of the
Trump base.

The national anthem plays at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, July 2017. (Jasen
Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports)

To
his great credit, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was bold enough to quickly respond to the president with a tweet
of his own, referencing President John F. Kennedy:

“All
Americans R granted rights 2 peaceful protests -

Those
who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable-JFK”

To
be honest, Earnhardt is in a position where he can afford to speak
out. With his competitive career coming to an end and his popularity
fundamentally established, the risk to his brand is smaller. For
everyone else in NASCAR, participation in the sport is governed by
economic realities.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. before the September 24 race in New Hampshire. (AP
Photo/Charles Krupa)

The
32 teams of the National Football League are generally owned by a
single person, with the teams operating under the league's rules and
benefiting from financial structures designed to generate profits to
the league and team ownership.

NASCAR
presents a totally different operating structure. From NASCAR's
inception more than five decades ago, the teams that compete at
events are independent entities. They are responsible for their own
operating costs, which – whether it be local short track drivers or
top competitors racing on the longest superspeedways – means
generation of sponsorship income is the lifeblood of the sport.

The
absence of any organized protest at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last weekend was not a
thumbing-of-the-nose at the NFL athletes who exercised their rights
to protest, nor was it an angry disagreement with the increasingly
frank criticism of President Trump's behavior and domestic policies
from players in the NBA.

Rather,
it boils down to a simple, age-old racing rule: don't piss off the
sponsors. Until the unimaginable day comes when that rule becomes
insignificant, expect business-as-usual among everyone involved in
NASCAR.

Bugatti's
Veyron blew fresh winds of performance into the rarefied air of the
supercar class upon its release in 2005. But now the manufacturer has
gone above and beyond with the astonishing new Chiron.

The
Bugatti Chiron, as seen in a promotional video.

To test
drive this latest mind-bending definition of “supercar,” Bugatti
turned to Juan Pablo Montoya. Of course, Montoya is no stranger to
going fast. A winner of races in vehicles ranging from NASCAR stock
cars to Formula 1 creations, Montoya's trophy shelf bulges with
hardware collected at elite events including the Indianapolis 500,
the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the Grand Prix of Monaco. But despite
all of that imposing experience, Montoya had barely eked past 250 mph
in an Indy car to set his personal speed record – until he slipped
behind the wheel of a certain French street car last month.

Juan
Pablo Montoya can expect quicker trips to his local Wawa if he
continues to have a Chiron at his disposal.

Montoya
deployed the Chiron's four sequential turbos to propel himself to a
cruising speed of 260 mph. Perhaps even more impressive, Montoya set
a new record for zero-to-400 km/h-to-zero in under 42 seconds. Yes,
that's from a standing start to 249 mph and back to zero in just over
half a minute. The Chiron will haul itself from zero to 60 mph in
just over two seconds, but it can stop almost as quickly as it
accelerates.

A
beautifully-shot, dramatic video of Montoya's feat while driving the Chiron can be seen here:

Clearly,
this latest dream release from Bugatti is setting new standards. And
it's so affordable! The Chiron will sell for less than $3 million.
Delivered.

The work
of Murray Lerner, who passed away yesterday at the age of 90, is
familiar to almost all fans of Jimi Hendrix, even if his name does
not instantly ring bells of recognition.

Murray Lerner, documentarian of rock history.

Through
the success of his film about the Newport Folk Festival titled
Festival, Lerner was brought on board to document the preparation and
staging of the 1970 Isle of Wight rock festival.

The
festival drew a larger crowd than Woodstock, which had taken place a
year earlier. But as might be expected when 600,000 people descend on
a small island off the coast of England, problems were bound to crop
up. Lerner's Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival offers a
fascinating account of the festival, capturing everything from Joni
Mitchell's on-stage meltdown to mercurial festival staff member Rikki
Farr's high-strung dealings with just about everyone he came in
contact with.

Fortunately
for rock history, Lerner armed his small crew with plenty of film. As
a result, Lerner's name is associated with quite the array of titles,
all rooted in that single late summer weekend in 1970: Listening To
You: The Who At The Isle Of Wight Festival, Nothing is Easy: Jethro
Tull at the Isle of Wight, Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue,
The Birth Of A Band: Emerson,Lake & Palmer Isle of Wight 1970,
The Moody Blues: Threshold of a Dream: Live at the Isle of Wight
Festival 1970, Leonard Cohen: Live At The Isle of Wight 1970, Taste:
What's Going On Live At The Isle of Wight 1970.

Jimi Hendrix on stage at Isle of Wight. To the right of Jimi's Stratocaster headstock Hendrix road crew member Howard Parker, aka "H," observes the troubled set.

Hendrix
fans first saw Lerner's documentation of Jimi's performance excerpted
on VHS and LaserDisc titles like Jimi Hendrix: The Great Pop
Festivals and Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight. But it wasn't until
the 2002 release of Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of
Wight that an accurate assessment of Jimi's full set could be made.
The fascinating documentary allows viewers to watch as Jimi struggles
his way through one of his longest sets ever, complicated by repeated
technical difficulties ranging from recalcitrant effects pedals to
festival security walkie-talkie conversations being picked up by the
amplification chain and broadcast to the audience. As a Hendrix
performance, Lerner's film offers moments of typical Jimi brilliance
rising above the shambles.

A screen image from the film trailer depicts an aerial view of the 600,000 people gathered in the summer of 1970.

When
Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight was released,
Murray Lerner appeared at Philadelphia's Prince Theater for a
screening of his new film. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to talk
to him about Hendrix's set and the festival experience in general. He
was thoughtful and humble, characteristics that no doubt contributed
to his ability to capture those critical moments that make so many of
his films stand out.

I was
recently added to a Jimi Hendrix online group, and looking at the
list of members I was startled to see how many were associates of or
had crossed paths with Jimi himself.

I
reminded me of my efforts – undertaken more than two decades ago –
to find and interview Lonnie Youngblood. Lonnie's name was linked to
Jimi's through a number of releases documenting – many might say
exploiting – early studio sessions the two men had shared in New
York City.

Just one
of the many albums from the 1970s and 1980s linking Lonnie Youngblood
and Jimi Hendrix. More recently, Youngblood appears on People,
Hell and Angels
and Martin Scorsese
Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix

Like
many musicians of the early to mid 1960s, Youngblood had little
control over his own recordings. And once Hendrix attained stardom,
the Youngblood tapes on which Hendrix had played were released on an
avalanche of albums and later CDs.

Though
I'd been traveling in Hendrix realms since first seeing Jimi play in
1969, I couldn't recall ever reading an in-depth interview with
Lonnie. So, being curious about the relationship between Lonnie and
Jimi and the circumstances of their recordings, I decided to find
Lonnie and tell his story.

Now, in
2017, it would probably take about ten minutes to track down anyone.
But back in the mid-1990s – pre-Google, and do you remember
Netscape Navigator? - it was considerably more challenging. After
exhaustively following leads, I found Lonnie's name associated with a
music event that had recently taken place in Newark. After contacting
the promoters of that gig, it opened up a path that eventually led to
Lonnie's phone number.

Lonnie
Youngblood at one of our interview sessions in 1996, outside the
landmark Harlem destination Sylvia's.

We met
in Harlem several times, and Lonnie's story was fascinating, not even
taking his association with Jimi Hendrix into account. It was the
tale of a musician working in the trenches, determined to make it.

If you
don't know much about Lonnie Youngblood or that era of music, please
take some time to follow this link to the articles page of my website
and read the conversation with Lonnie:

This
weekend, I had the opportunity to witness several passes over
Delaware's Dover Air Force Base made by a B-2 Spirit, more commonly
known as the Stealth Bomber. The aircraft's presence was certainly a
highlight of the Thunder Over Dover airshow.

The Northrop Grumman B-2 "Spirit of California" over Delaware, August 26, 2017.

I have
always been fascinated by the realm of secret aircraft development,
to the extent of climbing Nevada's Tikaboo Peak so I could see the
notorious Area 51 with my own eyes – while creating a promotional
video for my band at the time, Third Stone Invasion. I've also read a
number of books about the famed Lockheed Skunk Works, where
revolutionary planes like the SR-71 Blackbird and F-117 Nighthawk
were developed in need-to-know secrecy.

The
problem with those books is that they all tend to feature the radical angles of the F-117 on
their covers. Understandable, as the F-117 stealth attack aircraft is one of the wildest-looking
planes to ever fly. But state of the art? Consider that the F-117 has
been retired from service for almost a decade.

As the
ominous B-2 flew over my head the other day, I couldn't help but
wonder, “What's next?” After all, this specific aircraft was the
Spirit of California, the second B-2 to enter into service. That
happened almost 25 years ago.

It had
been some time since I'd looked into developments in this realm, so
spurred on by my B-2 encounter I wanted to find out if there was
speculation about military aviation being on the verge of wild, radically
intimidating new designs.

Screen grab from a 2014 promotional video created by Lockheed to call attention to Skunk Works activities.

What I
found was evidence of highly-advanced but incremental progress. The
emergence of the F-117 after growing familiar with the planes of the
1950s, 60s, and 70s was startling. But a similar aesthetic shock does
not seem to be in store. Lockheed, now publicly promoting its Skunk
Works with its very own website - Click here to visit Skunk Works website -
presents a video in which the concept of “collaborative systems”
is stressed, combining manned and unmanned aircraft. Several of the
concepts seen in the video call to mind the spooky shape of the B-2.

Artist conception of the B-21 Raider, with the "21" reflecting the 21st Century.

As for
the B-2 itself, its successor is to be the B-21 Raider, both aircraft built
by Northrop Grumman. The B-21 is expected to enter into service in
2025, while B-2s will continue to be flown well beyond that date.

Surely
there are amazing technologies lurking beneath the skin of the B-21,
but what's most interesting on the surface is how much it looks like
the B-2. It seems that in this case, they got it right the first
time.

Disappointing finishes have become all too common for NASCAR's most popular driver.

If
you follow motorsports even casually, no doubt you're at least well
aware of – if not yet sick of hearing about – the impending
retirement of Dale Earnhardt Junior in the wake of his
concussion-plagued 2016 season.

I
don't fault Dale Jr. for wanting to get out the car with his head
intact. And I'm sure NASCAR, while displeased upon receiving the
news, was grateful for a full season of retirement-based media
attention and marketing opportunities – financially lucrative
aspects not bestowed upon the powers that be in F1 when champ Nico
Rosberg essentially announced, “I'm outta here – right now!”
after the 2016 campaign went his way.

But
the official Dale Jr. lovefest recently took a slight detour after
Kevin Harvick, a real racer who clawed his way up the NASCAR ranks,
made his feelings known about Dale Jr.'s career, one that has
averaged just over a single win per season. Harvick said on his
Sirius XM radio show that Earnhardt “hasn’t
been anywhere close to being our most successful driver. When you
look at other sports – you look at basketball and you look at
football and you look at their most popular (athletes), they’re
also right on the top of the list as their most successful
(athletes).

“So
for me I believe that Dale Jr. has had a big part in stunting the
growth of NASCAR because he’s got these legions of fans and this
huge outreach of being able to reach these places that none of us
have the possibility to reach. But he’s won nine races in 10 years
at Hendrick Motorsports and hasn’t been able to reach outside of
that.”

I had no
problem with Harvick's comments, and think the outraged backlash over
his remarks glosses over the facts. Harvick was referring to game
changers like Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan. Dale Jr. seems like a
super-nice guy, but if you're going to measure a career on
bottom-line numbers, this member of the Earnhardt family ranks as
mediocre in the pantheon of great drivers. He's always had top
equipment, but not top results. And this farewell season has been particularly awful: he limped home to a 23rd place finish
this weekend at Bristol, contributing to a season-to-date average
finish of 21.7.

Dale Jr. (right) claiming one of his 14 popularity awards. Bill Elliott still holds the record with 16.

It's all
just more proof that the NASCAR title of most popular driver
certainly does not equate to performance. After all, before Dale's
umpteen years with the title, there were a number of years when Bill
Elliott was most popular while ending a career that was fairly far
removed from the glory days of “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville.”
In fact, it was nine years between Elliott's last win and his last
race, many moons that were far from awesome.

Dale
announced that he found Harvick's comments to be “hurtful.” Of
course, there was a time when such hurt would have been addressed in
a more physical manner, out behind the haulers in the garage area.
Ah, but those days – like the memories of the career of Dale
Earnhardt Senior – are simply fading deeper and deeper into the
mists of time.

With
today marking the 40th anniversary of the launch of
Voyager 2, I was reminded of the vaguely controversial decision at
the time to include a detailed stellar map of exactly where our
planet is located.

How to
find the third stone...

Of
course, the hope was that friendly aliens might listen to the gold
albums of earthly music also stowed aboard Voyager 2 and its sister
craft Voyager 1, decide we sounded like a pretty cool civilization,
and fly on over for an in-person greeting. Other people, however,
feared that this map would lead directly to an alien invasion,
brought upon ourselves thanks to our friendly outreach.

Jimi's
map was sound.

Jimi
Hendrix had already addressed the matter on his debut album, Are You
Experienced, via the song "3rd Stone From the Sun." And
walking in Jimi's footsteps – as almost all guitarists do – I
once had the opportunity to interpret this amazing song.

Third
Stone Invasion promo photo, J-Bird Records.

In 1998,
my metal band, Third Stone Invasion, were label mates with The Who's
John Entwistle and Billy Squier on J-Bird Records, a label that had a
brilliant vision to market via the Internet - about two years too
early. As a result, our concept album about the alien intervention on
Earth sold terribly but got great reviews. I guess if you get
favorably compared to Sabbath and Led Zep it's at least an artistic
success.

The CD
ended with one of my proudest musical moments, this cover of Jimi's
"3rd Stone From the Sun." Jimi's song depicts an alien
visiting Earth and deciding to do away with annoyances like "surf
music" - though the visitor does find a "cackling hen"
to be interesting (this set-up takes up roughly the first 1:20, at
which point the serious sounds kick in).

Guitarist
Rick Farnkopf prepares to answer the mixing call: All hands on the desk!

We mixed
this on-the-fly in the old-fashioned, pre-mixing-automation manner -
engineer Rick Statkus, my co-guitarist Rick Farnkopf, and yours truly all
reaching around each other to ride the faders on 24 tracks at once.
It was a complex mix and putting it together was a lot of fun - but
exhausting! I've been asked what makes the alien ship landing and
takeoff sounds at the track's inception? Pulsing away under effects
maestro Mitchell Mercurio's recitation of Jimi's words is simply a
chain of guitar effects (including a Roger Mayer Voodoo-Vibe) with no
instrument input, being run through a fully-flat-out 5150 amplifier
half-stack. Even with no guitar in that effect chain, it was about
loud enough to kill ya... It's heard again at the end under the words
of Ronald Reagan briefly mentioning aliens, and then it's up from the
skies, so to speak. Enjoy!

It's here.

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I've been writing professionally for nearly four decades, beginning with music reviews and interviews with artists ranging from Grace Slick to Robin Trower in the 1970s, then expanding my fields of interest to include motorsports, aerospace, and the national space program. My latest book project is 'Modern Listener's Guide: Jimi Hendrix,' with a foreword by Derek Trucks and an afterword by John McLaughlin. During my writing career I've authored more than a dozen nonfiction books, and contributed articles and commentary to national publications. As a musician - sometimes working under my musical alias Frank Blank - I've recorded albums both signed to record labels and independently, and performed live in an array of bands and projects. From the top of Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A to the famous countdown clock, from the stages of a myriad of venues to arena dressing rooms, from the pits of the NHRA to NASCAR's garage area, I've been fortunate to get up close and personal with the things I love. For more, visit my website at www.loudfast.net